Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust for ever.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, November 27, 2021
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
Don’t we all just want peace? You’d thinking people would be willing to work for it at any cost. But the problem is that we don’t actually want peace. We want freedom from any sort of conflict whatsoever. We want to be able to live in our own little bubble and have everyone leave us alone to do whatever we want when we want. And that’s not peace. At least, that’s not the peace of God’s reign.
The peace of God’s reign is justice. Righteousness for all people. And that means we don’t get to live in our own little bubble and ignore the rest of the world. It means we have to get outside our comfort zone and work to change the systems that benefit us at the expense of others. We may have to give up what we define as peace in order to have real, lasting peace.
The good news is that this peace of God’s reign is so much more lasting and beautiful than just retreating into privilege. And if we ever get there, we’ll all find it far superior to our shallow, insufficient definitions.
What does the idea of peace mean to me? How is this peace achieved?
![1 Kings 17:1-16 [17-24], God’s Care for the Widow](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56b39b61ab48de92d991a40a/bf37035e-33d5-439f-a0d6-a68b02d0f1bc/24-11-03.jpg)
